While most of the athletes on the U.S. women’s bobsled team are relative unknowns, there is one particular athlete on the team who isn’t a stranger to the Olympic spotlight, or to controversy. The Olympic Zone sat down with Lolo Jones whose transition from Olympic hurdler to Olympic bobsledder brought headlines from coast to coast.
Jones is one in a group of world class track and field stars hoping to push the United States to a gold medal in bobsled.
“I was actually recruited, I didn’t know I was being recruited at the time by Elana Meyers, the pilot. She was like ‘I think you would make a good bobsledder.’ I was like no, I laughed at her actually because obviously I was training for the summer Olympics at that time. It was just the seed that she planted,” Jones said.
There has been a bit of controversy about jones’s selection to the team with some, including American bobsledders, saying Lolo landed her spot because of fame, and not skill. Her teammates reject that.
“I think one of the things that people don’t realize is that Lolo’s first World Cup race, her first bobsled race, she got a silver medal! She’s dedicated everything she’s had to this. So the fact that she did make this team is a testament to how hard she’s worked and how great an athlete she truly is,” Elana Meyers said.
After some very high-profile failure at summer games past, Jones is happy to give up the lonely life of a sprinter to become a team player.
“For track and field you can become very, everything is about you in some ways you are a little bit vain at times. If you don’t, that could jeopardize you in a race and you could be last. In bobsled it’s all about putting yourself on the back forefront so everybody else can shine. My job is to humble myself and lift them up,” Jones said.
Women’s bobsled competition gets underway Tuesday in Sochi.